Photo credit: Archiv ÚFCH J. Heyrovského AV ČR — File:Heyrovsky Jaroslav.jpg (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Jaroslav Heyrovský
1890–1967 · Czechia · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1959
Czech chemist, father of polarography, who founded the first school of electrochemical analysis in Prague.
Nobel Prize work
Heyrovský invented polarography, recording current–voltage curves at a dropping mercury electrode whose characteristic waves identify and quantify dissolved species. The method made trace electroanalysis fast and routine, and he built the instruments and the theory that spread it to laboratories worldwide.
Fields
Related topics
Potentiometry, voltammetry, polarography
Potentiometry measures equilibrium potential; voltammetry measures current during a controlled potential program.
Trace and ultratrace analysis
Trace analysis requires control of contamination, blank variability, recovery and detection capability at concentrations near the method limit.